First Impressions, by Quiaira T., age 17

I arrived at 1330 Factory Drive two-and-a-half hours before the WriteGirl Blog Meeting was to commence. No worries; I was armed with my handy-dandy iPod Touch (named Lauryn Marie after my two favorite singers–Lauryn Hill and ) and a folder full of homework. I must confess, though, that no homework was actually completed.

But I put the two-and-a-half hours to good use, listening to music, revising lyrics, constructing my own and wishing that I knew how to write melodies to accompany them. This meeting was to be my first official evening surrounded by women who write for the same, pure love of words as I; the excitement was enchanting. I typed my innermost thoughts and feelings as fast as my tiny touch screen would allow me.

My mother sat beside me in the driver’s seat, also in her own world as she clicked away on her Blackberry. A writer herself, she understands my creativity on a more personal level. She left me alone with my stream of thoughts, letting them flow freely.

When 6:30pm finally arrived, a feeling of anxiousness made itself known as I questioned the Blog Team’s acceptance of my writing. My tendency to show my personality in my writing irritated some of my previous teachers, as did my over-usage of commas and semicolons; but the second I walked into the building, I was greeted with warm, inviting smiles and pleasant handshakes—the good kind too; not too flimsy but not a death grip either.

Throughout that first meeting, I found myself expressing my career goals, blurting out my own ideas about writing and the WriteGirl blog, and enjoying laughter with the women. I felt a strong sense of acceptance while sitting in my swivel chair and pouring out my identity at 38 words a minute on the office MacBook; I was left to my work, yet not left alone.

I look forward to the next WriteGirl meeting with such fervor that I smile every time I think about it. How exciting to have found strong, empowering, and intelligent women that NEVER underestimate the power of a girl and her pen.

20 Days as a WriteGirl Intern – Emma H., age 16

Greetings! I am here in the brand new WriteGirl office — a live-work loft on Factory Place that is beautiful, urban, and cradles the WriteGirl spirit like a glove. Out of my 20 days as a summer intern, I have spent my last 2 in the new space. Although 20 days is not a magnanimous amount of time, I have learned more about an office than I have in any summer previous.

Since the first day of my internship, I have been greeted by the smiling faces of the WriteGirl team every morning, twice a week (and by Wasabi, the WriteGirl chocolate lab mascot, too, of course). There’s always a task for a WriteGirl intern, and no matter how mundane one may seem to be at the time, weather it be making copies, labeling, fetching snacks, doing research, updating spreadsheets, or making quick phone calls, it always yields a positive result.

What I loved best about interning here was being witness to the creative productivity of the staff. I learned that there is definitely a necessity for fast-paced thinking, decision making, and action in a nonprofit organization like WriteGirl; and the ability to multitask is a must.

As I enter my senior year in high school and my 3rd and last year as a WriteGirl mentee, I’ll take these observations and skills with me in all my endeavors. I’m glad to have spent my time here; anyway, what better way to learn the works of a nonprofit than in the WriteGirl office?

Reflecting on being an adult (or something like it)

I turned twenty a few weeks ago. I’m now a junior in college, working on a degree in English literature from a very nice private university. I have things like a debit card, fashion sense, and a small business from home, I write regularly, I recently published an ebook.

Thing is, I don’t feel like an adult. I don’t know what being an adult is, but I can’t possibly be one. Legally, though, that’s what I’m considered.

I guess the problem is that I don’t feel any different. I didn’t expect a parade exactly, but I didn’t expect nothing. But I still feel the same way I did ten years ago, only with more responsibilities and firmer footing on my identity.

When I was ten year old, I saw my adult life differently: impeccable clothes (all pink), handsome husband, cherubic children, picket fence. I don’t know how all little girls dream, but mine was pretty standard, except I had a keen desire to perform surgery on people’s pets (that is, to be a veterinarian, not a psychopath, though I suppose there is some overlap). Somewhere along the line, maybe, I started settling for reality.

Not that I don’t still dream big—oh no. One day I’m determined to own a castle in southern Scotland, too, possibly one filled with exotic creatures from all over the world (maybe even a man). In some ways I’m still very much a little girl with starry eyes.

But now, I think of the chill on the moors of Scotland, the cost of heating an entire castle, the time and expense involved in caring for that many exotic creatures, if they can even be caught. I had to adapt. I had to become more realistic. More grounded.  More aware of the fact I look bad in pink and don’t know anything about animal anatomy.

I started weighing my abilities versus my goals, starting seeing the flow-chart like options spread out before me, which outcomes they could lead to, where those would eventually lead, and if they could ever possibly lead where I’m going. I find myself laying aside certain dreams to take up duties that will lead to more fulfilling dreams.

I stopped thinking in pink and started thinking in color.

Somewhere along the way, I became an adult when I wasn’t even looking.

It’s probably better that way.

- Karly A., age 20

WriteGirl Alum

Elementary, My dear Watson: Reflections from a WriteGirl Intern

In the WriteGirl office, there are usually three people working in the mornings; today, it was just two of us — Dorothy the new Managing Director, and I.

We conversed a bit on the most random subjects––from types of cheese to WriteGirl and then, eventually, to writing in general. She, as well as the rest of the WriteGirl staff, highly suggests that I join the WriteGirl program. I explained that I doubt I would have the courage to read my work aloud to everyone at a workshop (hundreds of eyes looking for your grammar imperfections, as I saw it.) When she asked me why, I said something like, “What if my stuff isn’t good?” She swiveled on her chair and gave me a contemplating glance—the kind that Sherlock Holmes gives to his assistant, Watson—and replied, “Well, what is good?”

What is good? She turned back to her computer monitor, leaving me with the thought as I continued to paste labels on manila envelopes. My mind wandered to one of my favorite pieces of writing, “Virginia Woolf’s Farewell Letter to her Husband”. I hardly cry over writing. But in that letter, I felt her heart and all of its passion through only her words, and I had to blink back a tear that was on the edge of breaking free. After a few minutes passed, I decided, “Good writing gets a reaction from its audience. Through emotions, like laughing or crying.”

Dorothy and I continued the discussion and she said something else to add to my train of thought. “I think being good means you’re authentic. Being true to yourself, that you aren’t false—or anything.”

It’s true. An audience can sense false sincerity in the person they’re watching. And you can’t get true emotion from them if you aren’t truly sincere.

So, what is good? It can be so many different things, and why should I let it limit myself from sharing my work? For a while, when someone mentions the thought, “I’m not sure it’s good,” I’ll be tempted to say, “Well, what is good?”

-       Julie A., age 16
WriteGirl Intern

Tips from Lisa Loeb

I’ve written fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, but I’ve never tried songwriting, even though I love listening to music.

But I learned more about the genre during WriteGirl’s annual Songwriting workshop. Writing music is about focusing in on a specific time and place, and then capturing the emotions of that situation through the union of poetry and song.

When Lisa Loeb walked in the room, she had such a glowing and energetic presence that made the whole room more vibrant. She was wearing her signature black framed glasses, which was very surreal. I couldn’t believe that the actual Lisa Loeb was standing just a few feet away from me!

She talked about various parts of songwriting and gave us a few great tips:

She said that we should all have a “felt tip pen that slides on the paper swiftly,” and also a cell phone or a tape recorder handy, because sometimes “great ideas [comes in the] weirdest times” and it’s important to capture your inspirations at the moment. And as we probably all can relate, those inspirations rarely come back to you.

Loeb also suggested to co-write with another person so that you can “get out of your own head” once in a while, and can feed off of each other’s ideas. Especially when you come down with a case of writer’s block, co-writing is the best way to get the song out of your system.

And, “Write a positive song!” she exclaimed. If you’ve listen to some of Lisa Loeb’s music, you’ll find that most of her pieces are heartbreak songs. But it’s important to focus on being positive as well since they are a “beautiful thing to share” with family and friends. And the amazing performance at the end of the workshop proved that sharing music with each other is one of the most powerful ways to really express your music.

- Charice B., age 17

Writing Inspiration Comes from Many Places…

My writing inspiration comes during random moments and I tend to write in places I shouldn’t. For instance, fourth period English.

There’s something about this class that makes me want to write. Maybe because I get tired of dissecting someone else’s work, I just start itching to write my own stories. It usually begins when I hear a classmate say something hilarious, and I think: that’s my punch line! So I’ll write an entire scene around someone’s funny remark.

A scene about one guy accidentally insulting his friend’s girlfriend, because he “thinks” they broke up, is worth missing a little of class, right?

I should pay more attention in class, but habits are hard to break!

Jessica F., age 17

WriteGirl reflects on Leadership and Literary Aspirations

I’m sure many people — writers in particular, and even more specifically, girls involved at WriteGirl — are able to recall a moment that played a significant role in who they are today in the literary world. Personally, I can remember an incident that made a huge impression in my mind. When looking back, it seems almost like fate, and it still continues to shape my portrayal of writing and leadership skills today.

Although I had left Trinity Christian School two years prior, I was excited to attend my alma mater’s annual on-campus carnival several years ago. Upon my arrival, I started making my way over to my second grade teacher to catch up and to see how her new class was doing, but it seemed my mom had beat me to it. As I walked up I caught the end of their conversation, “Yes”, my teacher said as she looked down at me, “I know a writer when I see one, and this young lady will grow up to be exactly that. She will grow up to write stories.” Hearing that fueled my sense of entrepreneurship, a larger belief in destiny and, more specifically, the drive to demonstrate leadership characteristics through writing in my life overall.

My involvement in WriteGirl has consequently become one of my more meaningful accomplishments. At the beginning of the season, I was matched with my weekly mentor, Deborah George, a nationally recognized screenplay writer, novelist, and poet.

Given the opportunity, I take initiative to motivate and direct our meetings and came upon the perfect meeting spot each week that is an easy commute for both of us. I decide what I want to write about, which activities and exercises to employ and what kinds of discussions to have. Right now, I’m focusing on writing about the exploring the power of first experiences and the emotional impact they have on life through a fictional story, but there are alot of directions in literature that interest me. With helpful guidance and thought-provoking questions, Deborah refers me in new directions. Using my organizational skills, and desire to make lists all the time, I designated a binder with different sections referring to research, resources, brainstorming, events, storyboards, characters, and time periods. My insight and development in these works has had tremendous effects on our progress and in our mentor/mentee compatibility.

With credit to Deborah, I know that if I had failed to display these leadership attributes, we would not have achieved advancement or personal recognition in our mentorship. I’ve learned to show a lot of intuition and to go with my heart. Without that level of authenticity, our meetings would be less effective since we wouldn’t comprehend each other’s needs and, as a result, would not fulfill the purpose of this portion of WriteGirl’s program. The mentoring program is an excellent way to get a head start on directorship and public, and for that matter, personal correlation. If we, as writers, lose this ambition to apply ourselves, the potential of attaining future goals will essentially be lost.

In those years since hearing my second grade teacher have so much faith in me, I learned how what people can say and what they demonstrate will really make an impact on someone. Through that lesson, I’ve become a stronger person who takes a stand for what she wants to accomplish. Showing what I’m made of and really writing with heart has gotten me so far already in life and in WriteGirl that I’ve become more confident than ever about my hopes to make a literary contribution. And if I keep heading in the right direction, who knows? I might get to my goal one day.

– Samantha S., age 16

Advice from a WriteGirl: The Importance of Literary Adaptation

A couple weeks ago, I picked up a copy of C.D. Payne’s cult classic “Youth In Revolt.” The story follows the life of young Nick Twisp, who enters into a world full of trials and tribulations that test his tumultuous love for Sheeni Saunders. I had picked up this book not only for its popular following, but also because it has been recently made into a major motion picture with the geek chic appearance of Michael Cera.

As a screenwriter, I make it my duty to read a book before seeing the movie. It provides such a transformative perspective to see how the screenplay is fitted for a small amount of time. This hadn’t been a prominent interest of mine until recently when I discovered that half the movies I know and love for their originality were, in fact, best-sellers before being produced, casted, and directed. My discovery made me re-examine all the things I read from that point on: literary magazines, poems, short stories, etc. Everything that my eyes passed was mentally put into a film form.

In WriteGirl, I learn to experiment with writing. Normally, a writing experiment prompts one to do something like “open your dictionary to page 137 and write about the first word you see in the book.” The following prompt is my favorite trick to creating the purpose of my stories. My experiment that invite you to do is this: look at your piece, and write it in the form of something else, like a poem, a song, or a news article, and look at your results. Does it achieve the essence of the story?

I tried this with a story I wrote a little while back. The story was told in a third person perspective of a young man stranded in a small town with dreams of living and writing in New York. When I decided to employ my writing prompt, I created a journal entry in the perspective of the main character.

I was, for lack of a better word, stoked to see that my story was strong enough to retain a central idea in two different forms of creative writing. Through my years of writing, I found that having that main message helps your story appeal to your audience. If other people are going to liken to your work, then why not give the experimentation a go?

– Mikayla C., age 17

Poetry Stand Gets The Word Out

WriteGirl mentor Alexandra Gazzaniga studied poetry at USC. She still writes it today. She and her mentee Janelle F. meet weekly at The Coffee Bean. Lately, they’ve been testing a new way to make poetry fun and inclusive so they decided to set up a poetry stand.

“Both Janelle and I are a little shy,” says Alexandra. “It’s a little intimidating to go up to people. So we just made a sign with a catchy little poem that starts ” ‘Want a poem with your latte?’ and put it near us.”

Turns out the pair’s first customer liked her poems so much that she gave them five dollars each. Alexandra and Janelle donated the money to WriteGirl. Alexandra and Janelle don’t set up their stand every week – it can be distracting to recruit customers. But they like the way it gets them thinking in new ways.

The goal is to write poetry on the fly and from another point of view. Teens see that poetry has a real place in the world and can be useful. Customers can memorialize events, like birthdays and weddings or they can get lyrics for a specific purpose, like a love poem or a travel poem.

Here are a few of the people who’ve approached Alexandra and Janelle at their stand:

-A college student going away for study abroad wanting to bring a poem with her.

-A woman who asked for a poem on sunshine.

-A woman who asked for a poem for a troubled relationship with her partner.

So try it. And, of course, please write us and let us know how it goes.

–Anthea Raymond

Professional fiction writers’ lessons from WriteGirl’s Fiction Workshop – January 12th, 2008

At the January 12th, 2008 Fiction Workshop in the EPICC at USC, WriteGirl mentees, mentors, and volunteers were lucky enough to be graced by the wisdom and experience of fiction writers Gina Nahai and Janet Fitch.

The WriteGirl Workshop Team separated everyone into two groups. Each located in a separate room, Ms. Nahai took one room’s group and Ms. Fitch, the other.

Ms. Fitch began her lesson with an exercise: take ten minutes to write one sentence without stopping.For this exercise there are two rules:

1. Your pen must not stop for ten whole minutes

2. You must not use periods

Reactions to this exercise at first appeared to be utter frustration! Alas, isn’t that the idea? Once we passed the 5 minute mark, all pens in the room seemed to be moving fluidly, without faltering.

Next, Ms. Fitch moved on to her top five lessons for fiction writers:

1. Write for the 5 smartest people you know. Assume that the writer will understand you.

2.Write in scenes. A scene is when someone or something enters and changes the course of the story.

3. Vary the construction of your sentences. Make some long with dependent clauses to deepen the meaning. Make some short for punctuation.

4. Do not use cliches.

5.Don’t buy things on credit cards. Live within your means so that you don’t have to take a job that will distract from writing.

Gina Nahai’s number one tip:”Have faith! Writing takes a lot of faith!”

Gina Nahai is the author of Moonlight on the Avenues of Faith, Cry of the Peacock, and Sunday’s Silence.

Janet Fitch is the author of the acclaimed book White Oleander which was adapted for the screen in 2002. She has also written Paint it Black and Kicks.